Cancer Prevention Information Seeking: A Signal Detection Analysis of Data From the Cancer Information Service

Abstract

Communication and health information seeking play a significant role in the promotion of cancer prevention behaviors, including screening. Data from a sample of information seekers who contacted the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's) Cancer Information Service (CIS; N = 20,412) were split randomly into an exploratory and validation sample to conduct signal detection analysis predicting cancer prevention information seeking. Important predictors of seeking prevention information in the exploratory sample were type of information seeker, communication channel, age, and gender; these findings generally were confirmed in the validation sample. Our findings also reveal important information about the demographic characteristics and communication channel preferences of cancer prevention information seekers.

Notes

¹Percents represent the proportion of contacts conducted in Spanish.

Note. Italicized numbers indicate variables that significantly differentiated subgroups in signal detection analyses. Values in the same row that share the same superscript did not significantly differ at p < .003. ¹Percents represent the proportion of contacts conducted in Spanish. LiveHelp is not offered in Spanish.